Graduation Gift
by Icee Suicune
Summary: This was coming from Yosuke. Yosuke! The creep who still called her late at night to bother her with dirty jokes. The jerk who constantly teased her. The guy who still pestered her after school, even after Yukiko had gotten swamped with work and after Yu had left. The one who always seemed to have her back, even after their days of combat were long gone...


Chie had dealt with some pretty scary things these past couple of years, but today she was faced with what was probably the scariest thing yet.

Graduation.

Today was her final day of high school. There were times she thought she wouldn't make it (bad grades, near-death experiences inside a TV, etc.), but now it had finally arrived. It seemed surreal; the routine of these past several years was all she knew, and now she had to leave all that behind to face the scary new adult world. Honestly, she'd rather go back to the Midnight Channel.

_That's no way to think!_ She mentally slapped herself. _You're ready for this, Chie! If you can fight shadows, you can live on your own! If you can solve a murder case, you can handle taxes! _

She continued the self issued pep talk and left her classroom for the last time, walked down the familiar hallway for the last time, and opened up her shoe locker. For the last time, of course.

Chie absentmindedly stuck her hand into her locker, but instead of feeling the leather of her shoes, her hand brushed over something stiffer and smoother. She picked up the strange object and examined it.

"A DVD?" She turned the case around in her hands, and when she read the title, a smile spread across her face.

"About time!" Chie laughed to herself. This could have only been one person's doing. It was the first time she had a working copy of Trial of the Dragon in her hands in quite some time. It had only taken about a year of pestering him, but there it was, in the flesh – er, plastic. She opened the case, just to make sure that he didn't break that one too.

A small scrap of paper fluttered to the ground. A Junes receipt, eh? Chie picked it up, noticing a message scribbled on the back in familiar, sloppy handwriting.

_Will you go out with me?_

Chie had to reread it several times to make sure her eyes were working correctly. She wasn't quite sure how to take it, to be honest. This was coming from Yosuke. Yosuke! The creep who still called her late at night to bother her with dirty jokes. The jerk who constantly teased her. The guy who still pestered her after school, even after Yukiko had gotten swamped with work and after Yu had left. The one who always seemed to have her back, even after their days of combat were long gone...

Okay, so he wasn't _that_ bad. He was quite the opposite, actually. Half of her was ecstatic that he had done something like this, and half of her screamed that it was a prank and Yosuke wouldn't waste his time on her. It was probably his way of getting her one last time, before they split paths and never spoke again -

"Hey, Chie, are you alright?"

Chie jumped at the mention of her name. Yukiko had walked up sometime after she had made her little discovery, and her friend sported a concerned look. Chie's heart was still racing, and she shoved the paper into her jacket's pocket.

"Oh, Yukiko..."

"Are you alright?" Yukiko questioned. She seemed concerned. "You've been standing there for a while now. Something on your mind?"

"W-well, uh, Yosuke finally replaced my DVD." Chie managed. She shook the case for emphasis.

"I'm surprised he even bothered to." Yukiko laughed. Chie laughed as well, except hers sounded much louder and more nervous than Yukiko's, which caused the black haired girl to give Chie yet another strange look. "Good to know he can be a decent guy when he wants to be..."

"So, um... do you have to work today?" Chie attempted to change the subject. When Yukiko just gave her a heavy sigh, she knew the answer to her question.

"I was just leaving. I was promised that I'd have this day off, but I guess not." she sounded disappointed, but she quickly dismissed whatever she was feeling.

"You and Yosuke, always working." Chie sighed.

"You know, speaking of Yosuke... he wanted me to pass on a message."

Two messages in a day, huh? He was getting pretty eager to hear her answer, she guessed. That or he was really excited to get his prank going.

"He wanted to meet up on the rooftop, but I have to hurry to the inn, and I think it'd be nice if at least one person showed up. He seemed a little off today." Yukiko said.

"I think we're all a little off today." Chie offered a nervous laugh.

Yukiko nodded. "Yeah... well, I need to get going. I'd at least check up on him." With the messaged delivered, she waved goodbye and was on her way.

Chie wanted to go be a good friend and see what was going on with him, yet she wasn't quite ready to confront him about the note yet. She definitely wasn't ready to be humiliated by a dumb joke either. Maybe if she didn't bring it up, it'd be alright. Maybe he was just being overly nostalgic or something and wasn't thinking quite right when he wrote that. Chie shook her head, trying to clear out her thoughts. It didn't really work, but it did make her feel a little better as she grabbed her shoes and slammed her locker door shut.

-.-.-

When she arrived at the rooftop, Chie saw that Yukiko had been right. Yosuke was sitting at the far end of the roof, his back to the entrance, his headphones on. He was inanimate; the only thing that signified that he wasn't a propped-up corpse or something was the slight bobbing of his head. The whole scene was a little unsettling. Chie wasn't used to Yosuke being so... somber.

She took a deep breath before pacing over to his side. Nothing else seemed out of the ordinary. Might as well get it over with, right? He didn't seem to notice her even when she did approach him, so she kicked him. Lightly, of course.

"Ouch!" Yosuke jumped at the sudden action, knocking off his headphones in the process. He whipped his head around and shot his attacker a dirty look. When he noticed it was Chie, his expression softened, but not by much. "What the heck was that for?"

"You were totally zoned out. I needed to get your attention somehow." Chie looked to the horizon, over the small cityscape of Inaba. She was going to miss this view when she left. "Yukiko told me you were up here."

Yosuke stood up, brushed off his pants, and followed Chie's gaze. He was quite for a few moments. "I thought it'd be cool to get everyone up here one last time. I guess that would have been kind of hard, though, because 'everyone' hasn't been a thing for a while now."

"Aw, Yosuke..." Chie fished around for the right words to offer her friend. Serious Yosuke wasn't something she was prepared to deal with that day. Jerk Yosuke, with nasty pranks included, would have been more up her alley. Really, she was expecting something to pop out at her or for him to bust out laughing at any moment. Instead he held his earnest expression.

With a sigh, Chie crossed her arms. "Don't be like that. You shouldn't get all mopey just because it's graduation day. Think about happy things!"

Yosuke shrugged. "That's kinda hard, don't you think? What do I have to look forward to? Bills? Running Junes one day? Give me a break."

"Hey, that's not all that's waiting for you! You know, when you get a real job in the big city, you can get that motorcycle you've always wanted."

"That would be pretty sweet..." Yosuke cracked a smile. "I don't know. I want more time to think about this stuff. I just don't think I'm anywhere near ready to grow up."

"I get where you're coming from. I'm scared about all this crap too."

"Chie admitting she's scared of something? Never thought I'd see the day!"

"Shut up!" Chie shouted. Yosuke held up his hands in a mock defensive pose, and Chie put down the fist she had subconsciously raised. The young man chuckled, and Chie couldn't help but smile herself. It was relieving to see Yosuke acting like his old self again, and she was glad that she wasn't the only one with fears of the unknown adult world that waited ahead.

"Look, you're not alone. I'm going to be stumbling through life right next to you. Besides, it's not like your folks are kicking you to the curb today or anything." she continued. She wasn't quite sure where all this insightful junk came from, but Yosuke seemed to appreciate her words.

"I guess. The old man will probably demand rent from me, though." he cast one last look from their old hangout spot and turned to Chie. "Hey, thanks for coming up here."

"No problem. It wouldn't have felt right leaving without saying goodbye to this place first anyway." Chie said. She had spent a ton of time loitering around here, and her little chat with Yosuke felt like fitting parting words for her hangout.

"Anyway, wanna go get something to eat? All this graduating really works up an appetite." Yosuke motioned for the entrance, and although he was facing Chie, he tried to avoid her eyes. "Oh, and uh... Have you been to your locker yet?"

Chie had almost forgotten about the DVD in her bag and more importantly, the note in her pocket. She was so caught up in getting sentimental over their graduation that she almost forgot that Yosuke had oh-so-eloquently declared something stupid (but no less heartwarming) on the back of a receipt. She shifted uncomfortably in her place, moving her weight from one leg to the other.

"I um, yeah. I stopped there before I came up here."

"So you got the movie then, I take it?" Yosuke asked. "I hope so, 'cus if you lost it, I'm not replacing it again."

"Relax, I have it right here." she patted her bag to push her point.

"Did you open it?" Yosuke stuffed his hands in his pockets and glanced up to the sky. If she didn't already know what was inside, his suspicious behavior would have been a dead giveaway. She couldn't really blame him, though, since it really did take a lot of guts on his end for doing this.

"Yep, I had to check and make sure you weren't trying anything funny with this. And leaving the receipt with a gift is tacky, just for your future reference."

"But... did you _read _the receipt? Both sides?"

Chie laughed, partly due to nerves and partly because seeing Yosuke trying so hard to stay cool in this situation was getting to her. "I got the message, if that's what you wanted to know."

Yosuke ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "This was supposed to go so much smoother. Or violently, I guess, although I don't know which one I'd prefer right now."

"Well, it wasn't the worst way you could have asked someone out," Chie assured him.

He finally managed to look her in the eyes, and he shrugged before he spoke. "C'mon, it was pretty crappy. You deserved something nicer. I just chickened out every time I wanted to talk to you about it, so I did the next best thing."

Chie couldn't really describe what she was feeling now. She was nervous about graduating, growing up, and now having one of her best friends confess to her seemingly out of the blue. Apparently _he_ had come to terms with his feelings some time ago. However, she wasn't blessed with time to figure out how she felt before this was dumped on her.

Yosuke continued. "You don't need to answer right away, you know. I just wanted to let you know how I felt before we all ran off to do whatever we had planned after school."

The two of them were quiet for some time, Chie lost in though and Yosuke waiting for her to say something. She was waiting for herself to say something too, but her mouth couldn't form anything that was on her mind. Maybe over thinking the situation would make things worse.

"It was really sweet, you know." Chie said at long last. "Actually, I thought you were pulling a stupid joke on me at first."

"As funny as that'd be, I'm not that mean." Yosuke smiled. "Like I said though, you don't have to answer today if you don't want to. Let's go eat, I'm seriously starving..."

"Only if we can go to Aiya's. And only if you pay, because it's the guy's job to pay on dates, right?"

"I always have to pay though – wait, a date?" Yosuke, who had previously been tugging on Chie's sleeve, froze in place and stared at her, his face confused and shocked and cute all at the same time.

"Yeah, a date. You asked me, and I'm saying yes!" Chie grabbed his hand and started pulling him towards the stairs. "Now, let's get going before the place fills up!"

"You- you're..." Yosuke sputtered and babbled and failed to form coherent sentences as the two of them left the rooftop. "You're serious?"

"Don't make me change my mind, Yosuke!"

"I – sorry!" They ran down the halls and out the front doors, pushing their way past several students who were still lingering around the front doors. "Oh, and just so you know, I don't get paid for another week, so go easy on the meat, will you?"

"Come on, is that any way to talk to your new girlfriend?"

"My _what_?"

It was a bit mean, teasing him like this. But he was just as flustered and nervous about the whole thing as he was. She was just a little bit better at hiding it. Already, though, she felt happy, holding his hand and dragging him off to the steak that awaited her.

She slowed the pace down a bit after they were clear of the school. Walking hand in hand like this was something she wanted to savor. Sure, they'd probably be doing that a lot in the future... but why rush it now?

"That was a pretty quick yes coming from you," Yosuke said. "I mean, not that it's a bad thing."

"Well, I said that we're going to be stumbling through this grown up life stuff together. Might as well start that now, don't you think?"

"That's surprisingly poetic coming from you."

"Today's full of surprises, I guess. Most of them are your fault."

"Fair enough. Just promise me you won't surprise me with a huge order today..."

Chie shrugged and got quite the reaction from Yosuke. They continued towards Aiya's, and Chie felt at ease like this. Whatever doubts the future had tied to it, she knew that she wasn't alone. She had her friends backing her up, her family... and a new boyfriend too.

-.-.-

_**AN**_

_**I think this is fitting, seeing as I just graduated :') My friend gave me the idea a few months back, and I suppose it's about time to get this finished. **_

_**I hope everything's in character, I hope you enjoyed, and thanks for reading! **_

_**Icee Suicune **_


End file.
